Certain animals, such as raccoons, are considered by farmers to be pests by reason of their destruction of vegetation, poultry and small animals. On the other hand, such animals are valuable for their furs as well as for their meat. Accordingly, fur trapping continues to be a flourishing business in some parts of the country, and many cooperative arrangements are made between farmer and trapper wherein traps are set at scattered points about a farm or ranch to rid the farmer of these pests and to give the trapper the "harvest" of his traps. However, many traps that are effective to capture raccoons will also capture and injure pets, such as dogs.
The inventor has previously developed a trap, which is shown in his prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,093 granted Nov. 20, 1984. The trap there shown cannot be sprung by applying a downward force to the trigger arm, as by stepping on it or pouncing on the bait. The trap can be sprung only by raising the baited end of a trigger arm, thus limiting capture to just those animals that lift their food to eat. However, when such trap was sprung, the animal's paw was caught between a rapidly closing thin metal gate and the relatively sharp edge of an opening in a sheet metal housing, through which the animal inserted his paw to seize the bait. This could cut and seriously injure the animal's paw and, particulary in the case of animals too small to capture, this was to be avoided.